I mean, when, in our heat exhaustion, we could mumble out full coherent sentences that is. The set Alfonso chose was great….. industrial but clean at the same time. It was, however, exposed to the elements of Miami in July. I stink like a Venetian whore, that about sums it up. 

For the makeup, it was requested of me that I do a coal-rimmed eye that’s fairly specific, meaning not super defused-out smoky-like. Honestly, I’m kind of tired of the black eye and asked if it was cool I throw a little blue in there. Overall, I think it came out smashingly. Here’s Tara, a lovely Canadian who made me smoke one of her cigarettes. 

For the look, I started with a Makeup Forever  Aqua Eyes pencil in black. I lined the inner rim, under-eye, and top lid. Then I used a square, flat shadow brush with Lorac black shadow and, placing the brush at the lash line and brushing upward with each stroke created a black base. Then I took an ancient (the line no longer exists) but awesome  blue loose pigment and blended it over the top, placing a firm blender brush on the center of the lid first,  and into the black. The blue effect was subtle, but effective. 

Sheenon, an amazing hair stylist who also works at the Oribe salon in Miami created sculptural masterpieces out of all natural hair. He informed that ‘Elnett‘ is now available at Target. Weeeeeee. I’m going tomorrow.  He also used Redkin texturizing mouse and a lotta style. His wealth of knowledge did not end there, however, he also referred me to his friend’s hilarious blog Pretending To Be Pretty. Here he is with the sweet 15-year-old Reed 

Romina’s mom brought us sandwiches made with love and, despite the heat, I think we had a really good shoot today. Couldn’t ask for a better team. Here’s Romina, Reed, and Alfonso having a pre-shoot huddle. 

I call this look stripper eyes or more affectionately ‘Jersey girl’. Think Carmen Electra, but not the narsty Max Factor ads. Very sexy and popular, it is commonly, although wrongly, confused with the smoky eye. The major differences are that the stripper eye can contain any multitude of colors you’d like and the shading has particular definition instead of diffusing. Also, the edges sweep upward and outward, which while that’s always an option with the smoky eye, it’s a constant with the stripper eye.  

1. Pick your palette. This can vary a lot, but a tip would be to use colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel (complementary) or close to it. Some popular palettes for the stripper eye are orange/yellow+purple/blue, pink+green, or metallic silver+black. In fact, shiny metallic versions of all colors are great. Also, variations within a color are great too. You will need a highlight (light shade), medium shade, and contour (darker shade), Anything else is just unnecessary flair. 

2. Line the eyes top, bottom, and inner lid (tear duct area). Any dark color that works with your palette or black is fine. Avoid brown because frankly it’s too tame. 

3. Cover your lid with the medium shade using a flat shadow brush. 

4. Take your contour color and shade the crease line with a blender brush. Take an angled brush and using the same color connect the outer crease edge to the lower lid in sort of a v-shape like so >. Again, with the blender brush, extend the  shadow up and outward from the >. Don’t worry too much where it ends, you can trim that later. And again with the angled brush, put a touch of contour color over the outer edge of the bottom liner, connecting to the > on the outer edge. 

5. With a different flat shadow brush highlight under the brow bone extending the light shade inward and outward both. Add a dot to the inner corner of the eye too. 

6. Take a makeup sponge or foundation brush and with a little bit of liquid or cream makeup clean up the outer side of the eyes by sweeping upward with one straight movement. This creates the definitive line indicative of the stripper eye. 

7. Lashes are not an option with this look, they are a necessity. Use a full strip with any variety of drama you like. 

8. Please, I’m begging you to leave the lips neutral. Resist the urge for a metallic lip! Just because it matches doesn’t mean it looks better. 

Hope this was clear! Let me know if not…. Here is an example using shades of black/gray/taupe.